Hooray! The 2018 Edition of Faith & Practice is now available for order (and to be shipped) on the Quaker Books Website.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
News from Friends in Hurricane affected New Bern, NC
On Thursday September 20, we spoke to the co-clerk, Shirin Scotten, of Croatan Friends Meeting in New Bern, NC. Shirin said that mail is not being delivered to the region yet, but UPS is delivering. Water is being handed out by local supermarkets daily. As stores reopen residents are being notified.
She reported that flooded out residents are being sheltered in schools. In one shelter 90% of the residents have lost everything and in the other 50% of the residents have lost everything. These shelters are being supported by a new non-profit Carrie On NC. They are responsible for some of the relief efforts in Craven County. Carrie On has a list of needs on its website.
More information about the county’s status and recovery is posted daily on the Craven County website and the Carrie On website.
We’ve also spoken to Friends active in the Core Sound Worship group in Beaufort. Nan Bowels said that their meeting leases space from Saint Paul’s Episcopal church and they have not yet heard how the church fared. Nan’s home did not go underwater, but the flooding came up to her front door. She had just gotten phone service back and was using a generator for power.
Baltimore Yearly Meeting Proposes a Minute on the Civil and Human Rights of Transgender People
June 9, 2018
Background
Baltimore Yearly Meeting has long celebrated diversity in our community. See, for example, the chapter on Diversity in the proposed 2013 Faith and Practice (pages 71-75). This includes diversity in respect to gender identity.
Since the November 2016 elections, we have witnessed a growing backlash against transgender people in the United States. The Trump administration has taken numerous steps weakening protection for transgender people in such areas as military service, prison assignment, health care, employment, schooling, and policing.
It is particularly important for us as people of faith to testify that our religious experience leads us to love, acceptance, and non-discrimination, and to support the civil rights of these friends and family members. For these reasons, we bring the following proposed minute.
Proposed Minute
Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) rejoices in the presence of transgender people in our midst. Our transgender members enrich our community and deepen our worship. We believe that there is that of God in everyone and everyone has gifts to bring to the world. Whenever anyone is excluded, God’s ability to work in our midst is diminished.
We commit ourselves to support the civil and human rights of our transgender members and all transgender people. No one should face discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare, or otherwise, or have their dignity assaulted and their human rights curtailed because of their gender identity.
How-To: State of the Meeting Reports
This is the story of how one monthly meeting developed a great way to write a state of the meeting report that can also serve as a community-building tool.
History:
Lancaster Friends Meeting has been doing state of the meeting reports for a long time. At least by the mid-1990’s, the meeting designated three people to write the report. These three individuals pulled things together from across the various groups and committees active in the meeting. With this process, the report gradually deteriorated into a very lengthy list of the all the things the meeting had done in the past year; it seemed the meeting’s newsletters accomplished the same basic task of listing all of the community’s activities. When this conundrum finally became apparent, no one really knew what to do.
There were a couple of years when there weren’t any state of the meeting reports written at all. [Read more…] about How-To: State of the Meeting Reports
Summer Camp Fun and Community Outreach
This summer, Third Haven Friends Meeting is hosting two sessions of a summer nature and mindfulness camp. The camp weeks are part of an effort both to support families in the meeting and reach out to families in the surrounding community. [Read more…] about Summer Camp Fun and Community Outreach
Staff Voice Policy: Update and Listening Session at Sessions
Members of the Administrative, Nominating and Quaker Life Councils received an update regarding the Staff Voice Policy on July 14th at their joint meeting. The update is shared here for all Friends.
This policy was formally adopted in November 2017, following a discernment process involving all members of the staff in the office, the Personnel Committee, the Administrative and Quaker Life Councils and legal counsel. The policy was initiated to expand and clarify staff participation since previously staff members were expected to not speak during business sessions other than sharing information. The policy strongly encourages staff to raise concerns internally during the development of policies and programs. As a decision-making process proceeds, a staff member can continue to raise concerns as outlined in the grievance and whistleblower policies.
The Staff Voice Policy states: “In seeking this collective unity, all Friends are encouraged to participate and all Friends are encouraged to set aside their personal convictions to be led by a guide beyond oneself…PYM Staff are encouraged to participate in this spirit-led process of our business practice…However, due to their positions of power and authority, Staff have an even larger responsibility to undergo deep discernment before using their voice within the PYM community, and to be intentional in the timing, context, and manner in which they speak.”
In late May, several questions were raised by a member of the PYM community regarding language at the conclusion of the policy statement: “In the event that a staff person chooses not to refrain from airing their disagreement in public in disregard of this policy and/or the social media policy, their supervisor and/or the General Secretary will determine appropriate responses that support the well-being of the PYM organization including disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.”
During two listening sessions, members of the Personnel Committee heard a variety of comments about the Staff Voice Policy from staff in the office, including their general approval of the work they did together on the Staff Voice Policy along with the Social Media and Grievance policies. The committee also heard from part-time staff who do not work in the office regarding the need for further clarity regarding the section on disciplinary action and a suggestion that this section be expanded to include guidance for staff who are discerning whether to share concerns.
Recognizing the workload associated with Annual Sessions and the importance of August vacations for staff, the Personnel Committee, and staff will discuss possible language to provide such clarification and guidance in September.
The clerks of Annual Sessions have arranged for a listening session on the Staff Voice Policy will be held during Annual Sessions, on Friday, July 27, 1:00 p.m. (as part of the Conversation Tents) Staff and members of the PYM community are invited to participate. The clerks are arranging for facilitation of the conversation and the Personnel Committee co-clerks, Paula Cell, and Linda Lotz will be present.
Faith & Practice Release Celebration is Saturday July 28th at Annual Sessions
Our new version of Faith & Practice is currently in production. You can order a copy for yourself, or place a bulk order for your Meeting that you can pick up at PYM offices in the Friends Center. Order Now!
Mail Orders to your home or meeting will be handled by the FGC bookstore in the fall.
You Are Invited to Celebrate
Saturday, July 28, at 5:00 p.m.
With thanks to the Faith & Practice revision team and the Publication Sprint who formatted it for publication, our whole community is invited to attend the Faith and Practice Release Party. A 5:00 p.m. Dinner will be followed by an ice cream party.
You can attend, either as a ‘resident’ (for full or partial programming at Annual Sessions), or come as ‘a commuter’ just for a Saturday Workshop and the launch party. Dinner costs $16 and you can buy tickets on site or register ahead of time.
Faith & Practice is PYM’s most important book. Like our faith, it grows and changes with the times, undergoing periodic revision to bring it up to date with current practice. It also moves us forward, towards shared religious and community-centered goals.
Resource Friends at Annual Sessions!
At the 2018 Annual Sessions this year, there will be a booth during free time and dinner time on Thursday and Friday where Resource Friends will be available to talk with you about their work and what they might be able to support for you and your meeting. They will also be offering workshops on Friday and Saturday. Resource Friends help our community thrive by providing support in specific areas of concern in our monthly and quarterly meetings. They offer a diversity of gifts and an extensive “how-to” knowledge-base. [Read more…] about Resource Friends at Annual Sessions!
Mourning the Passing of Penny Colgan-Davis
Dear Friends,
We are sad to report that our beloved clerk, Penny Colgan-Davis, passed away quietly in her sleep, last night.
Penny has been many places and done many things in a life of service to others as she followed divine leadings. A mentor, career teacher, school director, principal, head of school, faithful Friend in Germantown Meeting, and within PYM, loving daughter, spouse, and mother were just some of her callings in life. As PYM Clerk she led us in beginning to live into and embrace a new structure and corporate witness to end racism and white supremacy within PYM and beyond PYM.
The song Magic Penny comes to mind. Like a “magic penny,” she has touched many lives with love and spread it further and further across the earth. In each of our hearts, she will continue to do so.
We will report memorial plans as we learn them. In the meantime, please join us in holding John and Evan Colgan-Davis in the Light.
In loving prayer,
Amy Taylor Brooks, Interim- Clerk Quaker Life Council
Bruce Haines, Clerk of Administrative Council
Amy Kietzman, Alternate Clerk
Tom Hoopes, Alternate Clerk
Chris Lucca, Alternate Clerk
Melissa Rycroft, Clerk of Nominating Council
Andrew Anderson, Treasurer
Christie Duncan Tessmer, General Secretary
Quaker Wedding at Merion Meeting History Festival
On Saturday, May 19, Abington Friends juniors, Margaret Silbaugh and Lily Ehsani, dressed in the clothes of a Quaker bride and groom circa 1850. In the Merion Friends meetinghouse, they repeated their vows to each other before a congregation of visitors in modern dress. The wedding of Leonard Brenton and Hannah Roberts was just one of the activities at the Merion Meeting History Festival. Heavy rain hampered attendance at several exhibits on Quaker life 1820-1860, but the wedding, the period food and the carriage ride were popular despite the weather. Guests also enjoyed indoor activities such as silhouette-cutting, quilt-turning, a Quaker Plainness exhibit and a modern Beliefs-into-Action table.
